Ethiopia

Ethiopia occupies 174th place (2014) in the ranking of the Human Development Index (HDI), conducted by the UNDP, which annually monitors the socio-economic development of countries in the world.

Low quality of basic social services, in particular education, remains a large challenge for Ethiopia's development. In spite of progress made in recent years (including a significant increase in the number of qualified teachers of primary education and increase in the share of public expenditure on education), the Ethiopian education system is still burdened with many problems. One of them is the shortage of the number of teachers. In 2014, there were 64 pupils per one primary education teacher (source). Analysis of the rate of completion of education at the primary level shows that access to education is significantly stratified by gender. While primary education is completed by 45% of boys, the same rate for girls is only 36% (source).

From the point of view of the risks to the natural environment, a serious problem in Ethiopia is excessive deforestation and desertification. Intensive agriculture and poor resource management cause shortages in water supply in many regions. One of the conditions for improving the system of management of water resources is to popularise access to sanitation, which in 2010 as much as 66 million Ethiopians did not have the possibility to use (source). According to data for 2015, only 28% of the population in rural areas and 27% of the inhabitants of urban environments had access to the so-called improved sanitation facilities (source).

One of the strategic objectives of the five-year Growth and Transformation Plan 2010-2015, adopted by the Ethiopian government, was development and increase in the activity of the private sector. In order to achieve this objective it was necessary to solve the problem of high unemployment among young people, promote women's employment and improve the quality of vocational training. In 2014, the unemployment rate was 17.4%, while it was significantly higher among women (24.1%) and young people (26.7%) (source).